Even before I moved back to the North East I’d planned myself a schedule of scoffing to look forward to and the very first thing on the scoffgenda was a rather special supper club event. This particular supper, held in Ouse Street Arts Cub on February 8th, was the brainchild of Anna from The Grazer. If you have somehow missed her blog you need to take a look – it’s packed full of lust-after recipes and food photography that makes dribble drop from the side of your mouth down onto your laptop.

Having gazed longingly at the food porn featured in some of Anna’s posts for a wee while, I was super keen to graze in her presence and messaged her about tickets for the Middle Eastern Meat Free Feast night as soon as they went on sale. Be warned: I only managed to snap one up as she decided to hold an extra night, so if you want to attend one of Anna’s other events you really need to be quick off the mark or book her for a private event.

Setting the table at The Grazer's Middle East Meat Free Feast

My date for the evening was the delightful Danielle, a greedy girl after my own heart who I picked up at a wedding. This makes our friendship sound nice and sleazy but really we just got talking about carbs and decided to be food friends, which is fast becoming my friend pickup technique. After briefly getting a little lost in Ouseburn (I’m not a proper local yet, obv), we rocked up to the shipping container where our supper was to be served, eager to tuck in to the following menu.

The Grazer’s Middle East Meat Free Feast Menu

The venue itself was really rather cosy and the lighting and projector helped set the ambience. Warming ourselves up with a glasses of ginger fizz, Danielle and I decided to do a bit of a mingle and got talking to two fellow food appreciators from Durham who gave me more eateries to add to my ‘to try’ list, including a pancake house in Durham. And then it was time to get to work on the middle eastern mezze, which was a sea of colours and textures.

The Middle East Meat Free Feast begins

I know I bang on a lot about beans being the work of Satan and on the whole I stand by this, but I really couldn’t get enough of Anna’s bean and feta crush, which was gorgeously garlicky and incredibly more-ish. In fact, the whole of the starter was more-ish. I shovelled heaps of carrot dip down on the caraway crackers and suspect I took more than my fair share of the mint and feta cigars (I really need the recipe for these please Anna, they were a real crowd pleaser with everyone).

I’m a real meat eater but since my meal at Hansas, I’ve been embracing vegetarian food far more enthusiastically and there’s even talk about Bitsandbobs Becs and I completing an entirely meat-free March. SERIOUS SAUSAGE LOVERS QUIT MEAT FOR MARCH – YOU HEARD IT HERE FIRST! Anyway, one item that will definitely be getting an outing during this time is lentil kofte and Anna’s red lentil versions were crisp without being crunchy and tasted amazing with the harissa creme fraiche and yoghurt dips. The pomegranate was a great finishing touch adding even more colour to the smorgasbord of shades.

Honeyed sweet potato and chickpea, tomato and spinach stew

After nibbles galore, which we washed down with BYO white wine, it was time for the carbs and they came in the form of nutty cous cous and honey sweet potatoes. Alongside these perfect partners was some chickpea, tomato and spinach stew, which tasted hearty and I suspect helped me ward off all illness as I ate it, though Danielle and I did think it could do with a bit more spice/depth of flavour. Again, I suspect I took more than my fair share of my favourite part of this course – the honeyed sweet potato. I often mash sweet potato with harissa but I’ve never thought of cooking it in honey – until now. It’s such a simple thing to do but it’s most certainly a case of once tried never forgotten.

Toasted almond and date couscous

After a brief pause to serve some Ouseburn coffee and mingle more we were again seated for the sweet course, which came in two parts, the first was an amazing almond flavoured dessert, which has since sparked an almond binge

Milk and almond pudding with honey and hazelnuts and Ouseburn coffee

To finish, we were presented with some stunning tiny tartlets filled with flavoured cream and scattered with pomegranate seeds and some rose, almond and pistachio filled dates. The tarts were beautifully crisp and I could have quite happily eaten about five or six of the dates washed down with more of the lovely Ouseburn coffee – so I was a tad disappointed when I realised the coffee had run dry and I’d scoffed my allocated date. I couldn’t even steal Danielle’s as hers had disappeared even more quickly than mine.

At the end of the meal we were asked to make a monetary donation for our food with the suggested donation set at £30. We were both happy to give this amount because we really enjoyed the whole experience and Anna had obviously put a lot of effort into preparing the evening. I didn’t go home quite so full as after my evening at Dinner in the Manor supper club in Leeds, but the nights were slightly different types of experiences – the Manor is a little more cosy and intimate and The Grazer felt like a magical, secret event and one that I would definitely recommend.

One further outcome of the evening was a rather tipsy Danielle and I deciding that it was about time we got our greedy girls’ bums in gear and started some food events of our own. With this in mind, we will be holding our own supper club event in aid of Macmillan Cancer in March. Watch this space!